I've been using i-sound for about a week now. I'm using it to record Sirius radio (like many others here probably are). I have my radio connected through the microphone input to my sound card. I'm recording to MP3 format (between 96 and 128 bitrate). Sound levels are fine, and many times I get nice clean recordings.

The problem I'm getting is a "tick-tick-tick-tick-tick" sound that fades in and out. It'll do it for 4-5 seconds then fade out for a few seconds, and then fade back in again. It's not an audible sound when playing live, only on the playback of the recording.

It doesn't always do it, though. It seems that the longer the computer is on or the program is running, the more likely the ticking will be on the recording.

I discovered that the only way to stop it from happening was to go into Settings and select a new bit-rate to use. As soon as I select "select this format" the ticking stops and doesn't start again for the rest of my recording (6 hours worth). So something about changing the settings is supressing the problem long enough to finish the recording. But if I let it go until the next programmed recording, it'll start again. I haven't figured out exactly how long it takes, but it's at least 7 hours.

To try and fix it, I have turned off every program I can while recording. Virus protections, screen savers, etc... I have moved the target folder to a secondary hard drive, away from the C: drive. I even un-uninstalled the program, did a scandisk/defrag, then reinstalled the program and it still does the same problem.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on how to fix this? I'm getting tired of constantly checking the recordings, and changing the bit-rate just to stop this annoying ticking sound. Is there something running in the background that I'm not aware of?

Oleg Tsheglov wrote:What DirectX version you have? We recommend 9.0 or higher. Also you can update drivers for your sound card.
Some old drivers may resample audio with same artefacts.

Not related to cursor movement.

DirectX was updated to 9.x last night. But problem still happened this morning.

I have checked the sound card drivers (sound card, not "built-in" sound). They all appear to be updated. But wouldn't the problem be audible through the speakers, or at least exist all the time through any recording if it were the sound card? It's possible to make the problem go away, if only for a while.

It appears to be something either process related or buffer related. Usually when I do the "fix" (re-select the Bitrate from settings) at around 5:50am before my 5:55 event start, my recording is perfect through at least 12:30pm when the event finishes. Then sometime later it'll come back. This morning I did my usual "fix" at about 5:35am. I just checked the recording, and the "tick" came back in at about 12:23pm. Or 6:48 since the "fix" and 6:33 since the recording event started.

I have checked all other processes running on the machine. I've disable any virus protect monitoring (including ccapp.exe), any quick-launch programs, any mouse or graphic properties functions that might run in the background (like Em.exe and atiptaxx.exe). I had it down the nitty-gritty hoping to finally get it to work without any "ticking". No luck.

None of those specify to work for my CT4810 model card. But just in case, I still tried the SBPCI_WebDrvsV5_12_01.exe, since it does cover the most models, including the CT4815.

The sound still worked for other applications, and appeared the same as before. But when I launched i-Sound it crashed. I received two errors, in succession before it finished loading i-Sound. Then, despite hearing sound playing through the speakers, the program wasn't receiving any input signal. I even tried every possible input type. Nothing worked. When I tried to exit i-Sound, it crashed with another error, refusing to exit. Eventually it would lock up the entire computer.

I decided to go back to my old drivers. Now it seems to be working again (i-Sound included, same as before). If I can find another set of updated drivers that specifically works for my model card, then I will try it.

However, I'm still not convinced that it's the sound card or drivers. The sound coming from the speakers/headphones is perfect, even when the recorded MP3 plays back with the "ticking". Its just a matter of how long I feel like doing my work-around before decide to try something else.

Yes, you right. Sound from speakers will be clean, but than you record audio with different sampling rates, sound card resample two streams using driver's microcode. For example you playback MP3 file inside Winamp with 44100Hz sampling rate and record it with i-Sound 48000Hz sampling rate. Driver may accumulate resamping errors and produce snaps in recorder file. After reinitialization (you change some settings) it will work some times, but later all repeate again.

Oleg Tsheglov wrote:For example you playback MP3 file inside Winamp with 44100Hz sampling rate and record it with i-Sound 48000Hz sampling rate. Driver may accumulate resamping errors and produce snaps in recorder file. After reinitialization (you change some settings) it will work some times, but later all repeate again.

That makes a little more sense. Thanks for the explanation. Just for reference, I'm recording direct to MP3 using the default 44100Hz sample rate with a 96 bitrate, Stereo mode and constant bitrate.

I eventually found another source for drivers last night (not creativelabs website), but it didn't improve it either.

I just did another search on Creativelabs site, this time looking for the Vibra128, instead of the PCI128. Based on the CT4810 model number, I think I actually have the Vibra128, despite what it printed on the card (PCI128). The one they have is the same one I mentioned above that I downloaded from another source. So I guess I am now officially on the latest drivers.

Is there anything else I can try? Maybe a different sample rate? Or variable/average bitrate instead of constant? Or just a totally different format, later translating back to MP3? I can try each of these, but maybe you have suggestion on which might work?